Honolulu Theatre for Youth has announced nine original works for its 2024-2025 season. The company, founded in 1955, celebrates 70 years of serving Hawaiʻi's young people and families through producing professional theatre and drama education programs. HTY has commissioned and premiered more than three hundred new works for the stage, produced an Emmy award-winning television series, and was the recipient of the Childrenʻs Theatre Foundation of Americaʻs Orlin Corey Medallion, the highest honor in the field, in 2022.
HTY continues its commitment to create stories celebrating Hawaiʻi's diverse communities for its 70th birthday season. The 2024-2025 season will include five world premieres of new work and a selection of HTY favorites. The company will also continue its current trend of statewide and national touring.
“Honolulu Theatre for Youth is proud to have shared Hawai'i's stories and cultural traditions with students and families for the past 70 years. It is especially rewarding to have 3 generations of a family attend a performance together and hear kupuna share memories with the keiki of HTY productions which they attended when they were students. It is our hope that we will continue to explore new ideas and create exciting productions using both new tools and technology and the extraordinary talents of our local actors and artists,” shared Becky Dunning, HTY Managing Director.
The season kicks off with Winnie the Pooh and Bunraku Too, an adaptation of A.A. Milneʻs classic book performed using Bunraku, a Japanese puppet theatre that dates back to the 17th century. Also in the early Fall, The Great Race: The Story of the Chinese Zodiac by Reiko Ho will have a brief run at Tenney Theatre before heading out on a neighbor island tour. In October, the company will premiere Pā Ka Makani by Lokomaikaʻi Lipscomb and Annie Cusick Wood exploring what the wind means here in Hawaiʻi and beyond.
In November, the littlest audience members and families will delight in Forest Flutters: A Bird-Day Party, an interactive show about native birds by Danica Rosegren and the HTY Ensemble. The show is a collaboration with Capitol Modern, formerly The Hawaiʻi State Art Museum.
A revamped Christmas Talk Story by local writers and the HTY Ensemble is back for the holiday season. This year, HTY is accepting submissions of new material from the local community. More information about submitting work is available online at www.htyweb.org.
HTY favorite, The Musubi Man by Lee Cataluna, adapted from the beloved book by local author Sandi Takayama, returns in January 2025. In February, The Paʻakai We Bring by Moses Goods and the HTY Ensemble will have a brief run before continuing its national tour which began this past Spring.
The season will finish with two world premieres. In March 2025, the company will premiere an original musical, Too Many Mangos and Other Stories adapted from the book by local writer Tammy Paikai followed by a show for older keiki about the origin of the Hawaiian steel guitar titled, Joseph Kekuku and the Voice of the Steel Guitar by Moses Goods and Noa Gardner, in collaboration with Kealakai Center for Pacific Strings.
